ANI DIFRANCO – Light Of Some Kind

i wish i didn’t have this nervous laugh
i wish i didn’t say half the stuff i say
i wish i could just learn to cover my tracks
i guess i’m not concerned about getting away

’cause every time i try to hold my tongue
it slips like a fish from a line
they say if you want to play
you should learn how to play dumb
i guess i can’t bring myself to waste your time

’cause we both know what i’ve been doing
i’ve been intentionally bad at lying
you’re the only boy i ever let see through me
and i hope you beleive me when i say i’m trying
and i hope i never improve my game
yeah i’d rather have these things weighing on my mind
and at the end of this tunnel of guilt and shame
there must be a light of some kind
there must be a light of some kind

i must have blown a fuse or something
cause it was so dark in my mind
she came up to me with the sweetest face
and she was holding a light of some kind
and i still think of you as my boyfriend
i don’t think this is the end of the world
but i think maybe you should follow my example
and go meet yourself a really nice girl

’cause we both know. . .

in the end the world comes down to just a few people
but for you it comes down to one
but no one ever asked me if i thought i could be
everything to someone
there’s a crowd of people harboured in every person
there are so many roles that we play
and you’ve decided to love me for eternity
i’m still deciding who i want to be today

’cause we both know. . .

ANI DIFRANCO – Life Boat Life Boat

Every time I open my mouth
I take off my clothes
I’m raw and frostbitten from
being exposed
I got red scabby hands
and purple scabby feet
And you can smell me coming from
halfway down the street

And I remember that old hotel had quite the smell
where I’d go to use the phone
Between the donut shop and the pizza parlor
where I learned to live alone
Sweet sixteen and smiling
my way out of any jam
Learning the ways of the world, oh my
Learning the ways of man

And I didn’t really want a baby
and I guess I had a choice
But I just let it grow inside me
this persistent little voice
And I guess I got her off and running
and run off is what she did
And that’s part of what I think about
think about that kid

So now there’s nothing left to wish upon
except for passing cars
The cacophony of city lights
is drowning out the stars
This park bench is a life boat
and the rest a big dark sea
And I’m just gonna lie here until
something comes and finds me

Yeah I got this tired old face
still grinning most of the time
Just ’cause it don’t have a better way
to express what’s on it’s mind
And I got this running monologue
entertaining in it’s outrage
And I’ve got the air of an animal
That’s been living in a cage

Every time I open my mouth
I take off my clothes
I’m raw and frostbitten from
being exposed
I got red scabby hands
and purple scabby feet
And you can smell me coming from
halfway down the street

ANI DIFRANCO – Joyful Girl

i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
i do it just because i want to
because I want to

everything i do is judged
and they mostly get it wrong
but oh well
‘cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged
and the woman who lives there can tell
the truth from the stuff that they say
and she looks me in the eye
and says would you prefer the easy way?
no, well o.k. then
don’t cry

and i wonder if everything i do
i do instead
of something i want to do more
the question fills my head
i know that there’s no grand plan here
this is just the way it goes
and when everything else seems unclear
i guess at least i know

i do it for the joy it brings…

ANI DIFRANCO – J J

Can’t sit on my porch and smoke a J
And remember how peaceful life can be
But all night long are a bunch of pushers
Selling drugs right there on my TV
Drugs that whether or not I buy
Are gonna end up in my water supply
Along with who knows what else, who knows when,
Just gotta take a deep breath and drink it in

And ‘round here there’s one thing people know
It’s that government ain’t there for you, it’s all for show
And I’m trying to tell them it don’t have to be so
But I can understand that their confidence is low
Cause ‘round here people’re so high they can’t see
Over the tops of the tall pine trees
Down to the mouth of the Mississippi

Oh, blood ignited in a blighted sky
Oh, blood on the water like we all could die
Blood in the reeds glistening in the sun
Blood on our hands, each and everyone,
Here in the calm before the wars
When the earth shrugs us off like dinosaurs
Here in the sunset days of yore
The first signs washing ashore

And goddess, come and lift us here in deepest Louisiana
In the gut, where hunches come from
A message goes out loud as it can

And you’d have thought we’d have come more far somehow
Since the changing of the guard and all
I mean dude could be FDR right now
And instead he’s just shifting his weight
And the disappointment is the knockout blow
Filmed in torturous slow-mo
Oh hope, please come where I can see
Don’t let the poison get the best of me

And goddess, come and lift us here in deepest Louisiana
In the gut, where hunches come from
A message goes out loud as it can

Of, truth is for telling, truth is foretold
Truth is for those with the guts to behold
We got vampires down here in Louisiana
We need voodoo dolls, we need talisman
We need wooden stakes and shards of light
We need harbingers riding through the night
We need fountain pens, we need whale harpoons
To overthrow the oil tycoons

Cause there’s no fish in the water, no birds in the sky
No life in the soil, no end to the lie
No time like the present and it’s passing us by
But it’s never too late, never too late to try
Cause if we all had to change, we all just would
And we would move closer and that would be good
And we would buy local and we would buy less
And we’d realize that wasn’t our happiness
No, that wasn’t our happiness
No, that wasn’t our happiness
No, that wasn’t our happiness
No, that wasn’t…

And goddess, come and lift us here in deepest Louisiana
And goddess, come and lift us here in deepest Louisiana
And goddess, come and lift us here in deepest Louisiana
In the gut, where hunches come from
A message goes out loud as it can

ANI DIFRANCO – Sorry I Am

I’m sorry I didn’t sound more excited on the phone
I’m sorry that after all these years
I’ve left you feeling unrequited and alone, brought you to tears
I guess I never loved you quite as well as the way you loved me
I guess I’ll never really be able to tell you how sorry
I am

And I don’t know what it is about you
I just know it’s not what it was
I don’t know why red fades before blue it just does
and I don’t know what it is about me
that I just can’t keep still
I keep thinking someday I will make this all up to you
and maybe someday I will

I guess I never loved you quite as well
as the way you loved me
I guess I’ll never really be able to tell you how sorry
I am
sorry I am
sorry I am
sorry I am

ANI DIFRANCO – Imperfectly

I’m okay
if you get me at a good angle
and you’re okay
in the sort of light
and we don’t look
like pages from a magazine
but that’s all right
that’s all right

I crashed your pickup truck
and then I had to drive it back home
I was crying
I was so scared
of what you would do
of what you would say
but you just started laughing
so I started laughing along
saying, it looks a little rough
but it runs okay
it looks a little rough
but it runs good anyway

we get a little further from perfection
each year on the road
I guess that’s what they call character
I guess that’s just the way it goes
better to be dusty than polished
like some store window mannequin
why don’t you tocuh me where I’m rusty
let me stain your hands

when you’re pretty as a picture
they pound down your door
but I’ve been offered love
in two dimensions before
and I know that it’s not all
it’s made out to be
let’s show them how it’s done
let’s do it all imperfectly

ANI DIFRANCO – I’m No Heroine

you think I wouldn’t have him
unless I could have him by the balls
you think I just dish it out
you don’t think I take it at all
you think I am stronger
you think I walk taller than the rest
you think I’m usually wearing the pants
just ’cause I rarely wear a dress

well…

when you look at me
you see my purpose,
see my pride
you think I just saddle up my anger
and ride and ride and ride
you think I stand so firm
you think I sit so high on my trusty steed
let me tell you
I’m usually face down on the ground
when there’s a stampede

I’m no heroine
at least, not last time I checked
I’m too easy to roll over
I’m too easy to wreck
I just write about
what I should have done
I just sing
what I wish I could say
and hope somewhere
some woman hears my music
and it helps her through her day

’cause some guy designed
these shoes I use to walk around
some big man’s business turns a profit
every time I lay my money down
some guy designed the room I’m standing in
another built it with his own tools
who says I like right angles?
these are not my laws
there are not my rules

I’m no heroine
I still answer to the other half of the race
I don’t fool myself
like I fool you
I don’t have the power
we just don’t run this place

ANI DIFRANCO – If Yr Not

If you’re not, if you’re not
If you’re not, if you’re not
If you’re not getting happier as you get older
Then you’re fuckin’ up

If you’re not, if you’re not
If you’re not, if you’re not
If you’re not aware that what you put out
Is what you get back
That you make the world through the way you act
You can’t harness the awesome power of that fact

And it builds up, it builds up
It builds up, it builds up
Yeah your love builds up till it’s bigger than you
Then it just carries you through
You better ready yourself cause whatcha gonna do
If you’re not

If you’re not, if you’re not
If you’re not, if you’re not
If you’re not, if you’re not
If you’re not, oh if you’re not

If you’re not getting happier as you get older
Then you’re fuckin’ up

ANI DIFRANCO – If It Isn’t Her

standing like john wayne
she is full framed
she is center stage
and my imagination is
rattling in its cage
I didn’t really notice
when everything else disappeared
but as far as I’m concerned
if it isn’t her
it isn’t here

she says do I know you
I say well, no, not biblically
but I’ve been waiting for you come
and talk to me
I have been playing
too many of those boy girl games
she says honey you are safe here
this is a girl girl thing

I told him I loved him
so he thought I’d roll over and play dead
he was god’s gift to hypocrisy
with weak knees and a big fat head
she says honey don’t tell me
that old story
you are boring me
just tell me do you like me
tell me what you’re gonna do
now that you’re free

standing like john wayne
she is full framed
she is center stage
and my imagination
is rattling in its cage
I didn’t really notice
when everything else disappeared
but as far as I’m concerned
if it isn’t her
it isn’t here
as far as I’m concerned
if it isn’t her
it isn’t here

ANI DIFRANCO – If He Tries Anything

I’m invincible
so are you
we do all the things
they say we can’t do
we walk around
in the middle of the night
and if it’s too far to walk
we just hitch a ride

we got rings of dirt
around our necks
we talk like auctioneers
and we bounce like checks
we smell like shit
still, when we walk down the street
all the boys line up
to throw themselves at our feet

I say I think he likes you
you say I think he do too
go and get him girl
before he gets you
I’ll be watching you
from the wings
I will come to your rescue
if he tries anything

it’s a long long road
it’s a big big world
we are wise wise women
we are giggling girls
we both carry a smile
to show when we’re pleased
we both carry a switchblade
in our sleeves

tell you one thing
I’m gonna make noise when I go down
for ten square blocks
they’re gonna know I died
all the goddesses will come up
to the ripped screen door
and say,
what do you want, dear?
and I’ll say,
I want inside

I say I think he likes you
you say I think he do too
go and get him girl
before he gets you
I’ll be watching you
from the wings
I will come to your rescue
if he tries anything

ANI DIFRANCO – Hell Yeah

life is a b movie
it’s stupid and it’s strange
a directionless story
and the dialouge is lame
but in the he said she said
sometimes there’s some poetry
if you turn your back long enough
and let it happen naturally
oh, yeah
hell yeah

I got a face like a limp handshake
hair like an accident scene
I’ve been waking up slowly
savoring the same old dream
and somewhere between
the folds of your memory
I was sleeping soundly
oh, yeah
hell yeah

’cause I like you
but I know you don’t know it
I like you soo much,
I talk to everyone but you
and I wonder
what you would think of this little number
I wonder
what you would say if you knew

If you don’t ask the right questions
every answer seems wrong
I was a terrible waitress
so I started to write songs
and I don’t know how I feel
but I wonder if you feel like me
do you ever get wrapped up
in the folds of my memory
oh, yeah
hell, yeah

’cause I like you
but I know you don’t know it
I like you so much
I talk to everyone but you
and I wonder
what you would think of this little number
yeah I wonder
what you would say if you knew

there’s a river of people
that runs past my eyes
and it’s beautiful enough
just to watch it go by
but the trouble with water is
she’ll always leave you for gravity
I never even told you
I had a crush on you or anything
oh, yeah
hell yeah

life is a b movie
it’s stupid and it’s strange
a directionless story
and the dialouge is lame
but in the he said she said
sometimes there’s some poetry
if you turn your back long enough
and let it happen naturally
oh, yeah
hell yeah

ANI DIFRANCO – Hearse

I don’t want to strive for nothing anymore,
I just want to lie here with you,
Keep the wolves outside the door,
There is nothing in this world you could ever show me that could ever matter more.

Little baby
In the next room dreaming,
Is just icing on the cake,
There is nothing like dancing,
A dance of give and take,
One step forward,
One step sideways,
A helpless feeling,
When the earth shakes.

I will always be your lover,
Even after our atoms are dispersed,
We’ll be pushing up daisies,
And my crush will just be getting worse,
I will follow you into the next life,
Like a dog chasing after a hearse.

I just don’t want to strive for nothing anymore,
I just want to lie here with you,
Keep the wolves outside the door,
There is nothing in this world you could ever show me that could ever matter more…

ANI DIFRANCO – Fire Door

I opened the fire door
to four lips
none of which were mine
kissing
tightened my belt around my hips
where your hands were missing
and stepped out into the cold
collar high
under the slate grey sky
the air was smoking and the streets were dry
and I wasn’t joking when I said
Good Bye
magazine quality men talking on the corner
French, no less much less of them then us
so why do I feel like something’s been rearranged?
you know, taken out of context I must seem so strange
killed a cockroach so big
it left a puddle of pus on the wall
when you and I are lying in bed
you don’t seem so tall
I’m singing now because my tear ducts are too tired
and my brain is disconnected but my heart is wired
I make such a good statistic
someone should study me now
somebody’s got to be interested in how I feel
just ’cause I’m here
and I’m real
oh, how I miss
substituting the conclusion to confrontation with a kiss
and oh, how I miss
walking up to the edge and jumping in
like I could feel the future on your skin
I opened the fire door
to four lips
none of which were mine
kissing

I opened the fire door [x 9]

ANI DIFRANCO – Dog Coffee

perpetrating counter-culture she is walking through the park
first light ugly and more muscular than the dark
pushing poems at the urban silence
drawing portraits of the passers-by
sitting on the curb
combining traffic sounds
getting dirty looks and dirty jeans
on the dirty ground
she says I can’t figure out what kind of life this is
comedy or tragedy I just know it’s show biz
and what if I don’t agree
with the lines I have to read
they don’t pay me enough
the way I see it

freedom and democracy
that’s the word from washington every day
the americat’s asleep
with warm milk and cliches
and people are expendable along the way
your dollar is dependable
what more can we say
would you like some dog coffee
it’s all that we’ve got
you can have some
you can have not
would you like some dog coffee
it’s all that we’ve got
we’re taking care of big business
and meanwhile some of the beans rot

ANI DIFRANCO – Dilate

life used to be life-like
now it’s more like showbiz
i wake up in the night
and i don’t know where the bathroom is
and i don’t know what town i’m in
or what sky i am under
and i wake up in the darkness and i
don’t have the will anymore to wonder
everyone has a skeleton
and a closet to keep it in
and your mine
every song has a you
a you that the singer sings to
and you’re it this time
baby, you’re it this time

when i need to wipe my face
i use the back of my hand
and i like to take up space
just because i can
and i use my dress
to wipe up my drink
i care less and less
what people think
and you are so lame
you always dissapoint me
it’s kind of like our running joke
but it’s really not funny
and i just want you to live up to
the image of you i create
i see you and i’m so unsatisfied
i see you and i dialate

so i’ll walk the plank
and i’ll jump with a smile
if i’m gonna go down
i’m gonna do it with style
and you won’t see me surrender
you won’t hear me confess
‘cuz you’ve left me with nothing
but i’ve worked with less
and i learn every room long enough
to make it to the door
and then i hear it click shut behind me
and every key works differently
i forget everytime
and forgetting defines me
that’s what defines me

when i say you sucked my brain out
the english translation
is i am in love with you
and it is no fun
but i don’t use words like love
‘cuz works like that don’t matter
but don’t look so offended
you know, you should be flattered
and i wake up in the night
in some big hotel bed
and my hands grope for the light
and my hands grope for my head
the world is my oyster
the road is my home
and i know that i’m better
off alone

ANI DIFRANCO – Crime For Crime

the big day has come
the bell is sounding
i run my hands through my hair one last time
outside the prison walls
the town is gathering
people are trading crime for crime

everyone needs to see the prisoner
they need to make it even easier
they see me as a symbol, and not a human being
that way they can kill me
say it’s not murder, it’s a metaphor
we are killing off our own failure
and starting clean

standing in the gallows
everyone turned my way
i hear a voice ask me
if I’ve got any last words to say
and i’m looking out over the field of familiar eyes
somewhere in a woman’s arms a baby cries

i think guilt and innocence
they are a matter of degree
what might be justice to you
might not be justice to me
i went to far, i’m sorry
i guess now i’m going home
so let any amongst you cast the first stone
now we’ve got all these complicated machines
so no one person ever has to have blood on their hands
we’ve got complex organizations
and if everyone just does their job
no one person has to understand

you might be the wrong colour
you might be too poor
justice isn’t something just anyone can afford
you might not pull the trigger
you might be out in the car
and you might get a lethal injection
’cause we take a metaphor that far

the big day has come
the bell is sounding
i run my hands through my hair one last time
outside the prison walls
the town has gathered
people are trading crime for crime
people are trading crime for crime
people are still trading crime for crime

ANI DIFRANCO – Cradle And All

fourteenth street and the garbage swirls like a cyclone
three o’clock in the afternoon and I am going home
F train is full of high school students
so much shouting
so much laughter
last night’s underwear in my back pocket
sure sign of the morning after

take me home
take me home and leave me there
think I’m going to cry, I don’t know why
think I’m going to sing myself a lullaby
feel free to listen
feel free to stare

I live in New York New York the city that never shuts up
in the daylight everything is so gory
you can hear snatches of stranger’s sorry stories
and I moved there from buffalo but that’s nothing
the TRICO plant moved to mexico
left my uncle standing out in the cold
said there’s your last paycheck have fun growing old

take me home
take me home and leave me there
think I’m going to cry, I don’t know why
think I’m going to sing myself a lullaby
feel free to listen
feel free to stare
rockabye baby
in the treetop
when the wind blows
cradle will rock
when the bough breaks
the cradle will fall
down will come baby
cradle and all

youth is beauty
money is beauty
hell, beauty is beauty sometimes
it’s the luck of the draw
it’s the natural law
it’s a joke
it’s a crime
I was bored
you were bored
it was a meeting of the minds
now it’s three in the afternoon and I can’t leave too soon
saying thank you, I had a nice time

take me home
take me home and leave me there
think I’m going to cry, I don’t know why
think I’m going to sing myself a lullaby
feel free to listen
feel free to stare

maybe I’ll live my whole life
just getting by
maybe I’ll be discovered
maybe I’ll be colonized
you could try to train me like a pet
you could try to teach me to behave
But I’ll tell you, if I haven’t learned it yet
you know,
I ain’t gonna sit, I ain’t gonna stay

take me home
take me home and leave me there
think I’m going to cry, I don’t know why
think I’m going to sing myself a lullaby
feel free to listen
feel free to stare

ANI DIFRANCO – Coming Up

our father who art in a penthouse
sits in his 37th floor suite
and swivels to gaze down
at the city he made me in
he allows me to stand and
sollicit graffiti until
he needs the land I stand on
I in my darkened threshold
am pawing through my pockets
the receipts, the bus schedules
the matchbook phone numbers
the urgent napkin poems
all of which laundering has rendered
pulpy and strange
loose change and a key
ask me
go ahead, ask me if I care
I got the answer here
I wrote it down somewhere
I just gotta find it
I just gotta find it

somebody and their spraypaint got too close
somebody came on too heavy
now look at me made ugly
by the drooling letters
I was better off alone
ain’t that the way it is
they don’t know the first thing
but you don’t know that
until they take the first swing
my fingers are red and swollen from the cold
I’m getting bold in my old age
so go ahead, try the door
it doesn’t matter anymore
I know the weakhearted are strongwilled
and we are being kept alive
until we’re killed
he’s up there the ice
is clinking in his glass
I don’t ask
I just empty my pockets and wait
it’s not fate
it’s just circumstance
I don’t fool myself with romance
I just live
phone number to phone number
dusting them against my thighs
in the warmth of my pockets
which whisper history incessantly
asking me
where were you

I lower my eyes
wishing I could cry more
and care less,
yes it’s true,
I was trying to love someone again,
I was caught caring,
bearing weight

but I love this city, this state
this country is too large
and whoever’s in charge up there
had better take the elevator down
and put more than change in our cup
or else we
are coming
up

ANI DIFRANCO – Buildings And Bridges

Buildings and bridges
are made to bend in the wind
to withstand the world,
that’s what it takes
All that steel and stone
is no match for the air, my friend
what doesn’t bend breaks
what doesn’t bend breaks

we are made to bleed
and scab and heal and bleed again
and turn every scar into a joke
we are made to fight
and fuck and talk and fight again
and sit around and laugh until we choke
sit around and laugh until we choke

I don’t know who you were expecting
probably some bitch who does not budge
with eyes the size of snow
I may get pissed off sometimes
but you seem like the type to hold a grudge
and in the end, I just let go…

Buildings and bridges
are made to bend in the wind
to withstand the world,
that’s what it takes
All that steel and stone
is no match for the air, my friend
what doesn’t bend breaks
what doesn’t bend breaks

ANI DIFRANCO – Independence Day

we drove the car to the top of the parking ramp
on the 4th of july
we sat out on the hood with a couple of warm beers and watched the fireworks
explode in the sky
and there was an exodus of birds from the trees
but they didnt know, we were only pretending
and the people all looked up, and were pleased
and the birds flew around like the whole world was ending
and i don’t think war is noble
and i don’t like to think that love is like war
and i gotta big hot cherry bomb, and i want to slip it through the mail slot
of your front door

don’t leave me here
i’ve got your back now
you’d better have mine
cause you say the coast is clear
but you say that all the time

so many sheep i quit counting
sleepless and embarrassed about the way that i feel
trying to make mole hills out of mountains
building base camp at the bottom of a really big deal
and did i tell you how i stopped eating?
when you stopped calling me
and i was cramped up shitting rivers for weeks
and pretending that i was finally free

don’t leave me here
now that your back
you’d better stay this time
cause you say the coast is clear
but you say that all the time

we drove the car to the top of the parking ramp,
on the 4th of july
and i planted my dusty boots on the bumper and sat out on the hood,
and looked up at the sky